Morgan Stanley adds clause to pull ads

Morgan Stanley , whose battle with unhappy shareholders has played out on the business pages, has added a clause to its advertising contracts so it can pull adverts placed near negative articles about the investment bank.
Under the policy, Morgan Stanley wants publishers to tell it about any objectionable stories that will be run in their newspaper or magazine, according to sources close to the situation. Morgan Stanley would then have the right to change or even pull its advertising to place it in a later issue.
Morgan Stanley's request to Dow Jones & Co.'s Wall Street Journal, Gannett Co. Inc.'s USA Today and other top publications comes at a time when the securities firm is facing public criticism from dissident shareholders and former executives.
But a spokeswoman for Publicis Groupe's Starcom USA, the bank's advertising agency, said this was standard practice.
"The majority of our clients, as is the industry standard across nearly every medium, has content-driven clauses in their media contracts. It is just smart business," she said.